The equipment worn by divers such as wet suits, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus best known under the acronym SCUBA or aqualung, the fins and face masks come in intimate contact with various parts of the diver's body. The mouthpiece, tubing, and valve of the aqualung carry fluids and solids exhaled by the diver. The interior of the wet suit comes in contact with bacteria always present about the diver's skin and even infectious discharge from boils, pustules, and fresh wounds. Diving equipment is commonly leased or rented from sporting goods stores and water sport equipment shops found around beaches and aquatic facilities. It is not unusual for a set of scuba gear to be used by several persons over a single day without undergoing any kind of effective sanitization between uses. As reported in the March/April 1997 issue of ALERT DIVER, the contamination risks associated with the use of diving equipment is well recognized. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia has published guidelines for disinfecting scuba equipment. These guidelines include dismantling and scrubbing certain components with soap followed by fresh water rinsing and immersion in a broad spectrum of germicidal solutions. The tedious and time-consuming practices of dismantling and scrubbing parts is seldom followed. The most common method, to date, of sanitization is by immersion into a bath of chlorinated water or similar germicide. It has been found that this type of sanitization is not particularly effective against germs that can invade the complex structure of the aqualung where they can retain their infecting potential for several weeks. Moreover, due to the large amount of sanitizing liquid required in the immersion process, the batch of sanitizing liquid is not replaced after each set of equipment, but, instead, used for long periods of time. Several sets of diving gear may be submerged at the same time, in the same bath. Consequently, the bath may quickly use some of its sanitizing power, and in a worst scenario, contribute to cross-infection from one diver's gear to another. In many cases, diving equipment may be used repetitively by different divers on board ship, or in remote areas where large quantities of sanitizing liquid is not available.
The instant invention results from an attempt to develop a rapid and effective way to sanitize a large variety of diving equipment using a minimum amount of disinfecting fluid.